Derbyshire cricket on ebay

I regularly have a look on ebay to see if anyone is selling Derbyshire memorabilia and have bought some good things in the past.

There's quite a lot on at the moment, but a lot of items seem to be up there in perpetuity. A picture of the 1936 Championship winning side is still selling for £9.99 plus postage and must have been up for around six months now. It would be quite nice to have, but I wouldn't pay that much for it, especially when the same picture has been in several yearbooks and club histories in the past.

There are other team groups there at the same price, with some of them autographed. I may be in a minority of one, but some of the autographs on those of as more recent vintage probably detract from the item...no names of course!

You can buy a Derbyshire County flag (just the thing to get your windows put in round here, I would have thought) or various pictures, signed and otherwise of players from our past. Incredibly, one of William Chatterton, a Wills card from 1896 is available for £74.99 plus postage. Don't think I'll be in for that one somehow, and can't think there'll be many takers, to be fair. I'm sure that must be grounds for divorce...

You could buy club cufflinks, or maybe a pocket watch, perhaps even a teaspoon. Nice items all, but not really to my taste, thanks. Though maybe your tea would taste all the finer with a stir from the Derbyshire teaspoon. And no, its not wooden...

One thing that is evident is that there's no real market at present for the old club yearbooks. There are a number of them out there, but no takers. Perhaps all the genuine collectors have them and there's little doubt that the Holy Grail of yearbooks (1954) would still get its buyers and earns a fair price when it comes up from time to time.

On that very subject, I still feel really disappointed that the club will cease the yearbook from next season. Handing out to members an extended annual report is neither here nor there, and I can't understand why we're chopping it to save £5,000. I know that advertising money is tight in the recession, but this is the club's history being produced and the value of that cannot be measured in financial terms alone. Maybe an edition with less photographs might prove more cost-effective, like the ones produced by Peach and Dawn for many years. As I've written before, the yearbook was at its peak under the late Stan Tacey and people are more likely to buy something that is "a good read" than anything else. There has to be people out there who'd contribute an article without charge? I did it for Stan over the years and got a free copy of the book in exchange. Surely the local contributors could do the same, or am I being optimistic?

Back to ebay and the most surprising item is a "Simon Katich" long sleeve shirt, with the explanation:

Front: CAN HE HIT IT?

Back name: KATICH (Or choose your own player)

Back number: 6 (Because he hits so many but please choose squad number if prefered)

Back: YES HE CAN!

Katich was a fine player in his year with us, but I won't look back on his time and think of a huge hitter. However, the back might look a little silly if it read "On occasion, perhaps, but overall he's a steady accumulator who times the ball well and relies on placement more than power"

Methinks Wagg might be the name of choice for many, or maybe Hinds. Presumably those who bought this last year and had "Clarke" on the back also had the wording - "Er...not very often".

Finally, there is, for a piffling £275, a signed bat in a display case signed by "stars" such as Simon Katich, Ant Botha, Graeme Welch, Ian Harvey (OK so far) Boyd Rankin and Phil Weston...

It was all going so well to the brackets. I'm not sure if the performances of Rankin and Weston in Derbyshire colours merit the term "star" and I'm even less sure that I'd pay that sort of money, but hey - if that's your fancy, go for it!